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Swingjugend

Get a load of these guys who opposed the HJ!

The Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and Swing lovers in Germany of the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg (St. Pauli) and Berlin. They were composed of 14- to 18-year old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but some apprentice workers as well. They sought the British and American way of life, defining themselves in Swing music, and opposing the National-Socialist ideology, especially the Hitlerjugend.

They and the other opposition groups caught some hell for it though. The opposition really only started after 1936 when the first youth law was passed and it became one of the main activities of the HJ-Streifendienst to seek out these groups and provide information to the police and Gestapo in order to prosecute. The Swing-Jugend, Edelweißpiraten etc were very loosely organised opposition but they were still able to coordinate and execute physical attacks on the HJ and party buildings. Some of the ringleaders got jail terms where others were held in one of two concentration camps built especially to contain the under-20s involved in opposing the tight grip of the HJ.

They had distinct shoulder straps as well. The HJ Striefendienst was officially sanctioned in October 1938, so all straps will be of the post 1938 variety. There were a couple of different coloration styles. At first they wore the red piped of the General HJ, and some straps with white piping and red numerals have also been encountered that appear to be handmade or altered. The final pattern introduced in 1942 were white piped with white numerals. They wore the triangle of the Gebiet in which thier Bann existed. Here's an example of a set from Bann 509 Wien-Floridsdorf, Obergebiet Sud-Ost, HJ Gebeit 27 Wien.